


the side of our lives

by returntosaturn



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post Season 3, Season 3 Spoilers, long distance, one shots, some kind of plot eventually?, yo I'm bad at tags just read the damn thing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-26 02:34:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19758829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/returntosaturn/pseuds/returntosaturn
Summary: “I mean maybe at one point I might have thought it was. But…”“But what?”“But I know better now.”“Ah…” She draws it out, teasing.He huffs a laugh. “I just mean that I know what the metaphor means now."// Jonathan sends Nancy mixtapes (a series of one shots)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I hope to continue this, fitting each chapter to a song and some sort of situation they'd face: long distance issues, school, jobs, college, friends, etc. Eventual inclusion of other characters.

“Pretty in Pink?”

He laughs into the receiver. “You got it.”

“Yes, the Jonathan Byers Mixtape of the Month Club, Volume One. I got it.”

He blushes and steps closer to the wall, tucks the phone against his shoulder, like maybe he’ll have more privacy from where his mom and his...sister are setting the table for dinner. His mom had said something about getting their own phone lines in their rooms, but he doesn’t know how much that’ll cost, and anything secret he wants to say to her, he kinda prefers to say it through songs on tape.

“I definitely didn’t call it that.”

“Well I call it that. So. Pretty in Pink? Is that me?”

“No. No, no, no.” He laughs again. “I mean maybe at one point I might have thought it was. But…”

“But what?”

“But I know better now.”

“Ah…” She draws it out, teasing.

He huffs a laugh. “I just mean that I know what the metaphor means now. It’s about a girl who has the misconception she’s well liked and gives herself up to feed that.”

“Oh, I see.” She kind-of laughs, but it’s too serious. “Glad to know you don’t think of me that way.”

“I never did.”

This happens sometimes. When she’s worried or overly stressed. When the air is too warm in fall, warm enough for swimming. She gets that tone in her voice. She thinks about it. About who she was then and what might’ve happened if she wasn’t. Who might still be here.

He’d always known who she was because honestly, for all her efforts, she didn’t make it difficult to see. She was a pretty bad liar all things considered, and any stereotypes he placed her in were banished as soon as he saw her fire that stolen pistol. God, that felt like ages ago. 

“I like the hook. That’s what it’s called, right? That thing they do with the guitar?”

“That’s why I put it on there. Because you’ve really gotta expand your tastes.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“And I look forward to you never doubting me again.”  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

“They’re just… I don’t know. Overwrought?”

“Overwrought? And Bowie isn’t?”

“Not when it’s unwarranted.”

“Ok so Blondie is overwrought and unwarranted but all the other broody bands you listen to are above reproach?”

“I see you've been studying your SAT vocab.”

“I already took the SAT junior year. And I made an amazing score, by the way.”

He stops, just listens to the muffled rustling of her bed sheets while she shifts positions.

He closes his eyes, refrains from saying he misses her because he’s thought it about seven hundred times too many today.

“Speaking if that...what happened with NYU?”

He shifts the phone to his shoulder and leans against the wall.

“They like my portfolio.”

“Jonathan, that’s great! That’s so exciting! So what’s next? Did you get your letter yet? Pretty sure Dad still thinks I’m only applying to be close to you. Which, I guess may not be totally untrue, but there’s still other factors...”

He’s quiet for a second, unsure. The big white envelope is still on the kitchen counter, unopened, bright against the beige Formica. It's been there more than a few days. His mom keeps reminding him about it, and he’s surprised she hasn’t opened it herself yet. She said she wanted him to do the honors but its just...

“Jonathan?”

“I...I just don’t know if it’s the right thing to do,” he admits, almost a whisper.

“What do you mean?”

“I just feel like...we’ve lost so much time. Will’s lost so much time and...“

“Jonathan,” she interrupts. “That’s exactly why you should do this. This is  _ your  _ dream. Just...let yourself deserve it for once.”

“I know…” He sighs. “I know. I know that everyone’s going to be fine. I know they would want me to do it and...”

He’s thought about this alot. Thought about how the world would shift if he went from setting monsters on fire in his own hallway and burning a parasitical force from his brother’s body to just sitting in class. Just being a normal kid, a normal student, stressing about assignments and papers and getting a job post graduation. Maybe sharing an apartment with his girlfriend. Living in an actual city with traffic and music and museums and people who passed without knowing, let alone caring, who you were. It almost sounded selfish.

“Do you ever feel like...you’ve lived past everyone else? Kids at school, worrying about the same shallow stuff. But at the same time you feel like you’re somehow behind them for the same reasons you feel ahead?”

Nancy is quiet. There’s no rustling of sheets, no sign of his mixtape playing soft and tinny in the background.

“We can’t go back. We can only move on. I miss her everyday, but i realize that if I keep beating myself up or holding myself back, I’m not living either and she wouldn’t want that. We’ve seen a lot of shit, but we always come out of it together. All of us have. To get past it, we have to start a new chapter. Our  _ own  _ chapters.”

He’s quiet, nodding though she cannot see. “Yeah. I guess so.”

“Let me know what happens whenever they get back to you. Mom’s calling me for dinner. I love you.”

“Love you too.”

He sets the phone back into its cradle and turns to grimace at the envelope gleaming like a beacon on the counter.

_ Move on.  _ Leaving Hawkins had given a sense of newness, but that was just distance. Just a place to tend their wounds and just  _ hope  _ crazy shit wouldn’t find them again. It was an attempt, and it had worked for the most part. They got some quiet, they got some peace. But the kids still had nightmares.  _ He  _ still had nightmares, seemingly endless dreams where he was back in their old house, empty and much brighter than he remembers, calling for Will, his voice echoing like he was in a tunnel. He still caught his mom wiping tears from her eyes while she made their lunches in the morning, still saw the lamp light go on in the living room at late hours. But there’s good too. Will and El were inseparable. There’s new memories with laughter and Eggos and movies and games. They keep to themselves for the most part, but they’ve helped each other heal as best they can. It wasn’t a new chapter, but maybe an interlude. Maybe at the time, that’s all they could take.

He scratches up the letter with a sigh and heads for his mom’s room.

“Hey, sweetie,” she greets at the door.

“Hi, Mom. Um...” He holds the envelope aloft, letting it wave in the empty air a few times. “I know I’ve been putting this off…” 

“You finally wanna open it, huh? It’s only taken a week,” she teases.

“I guess I’ve just been...nervous.” He shrugs.

“Sweetie, whatever happens, I’m going to be proud of you.”

“I know. But I was thinking I… I want you to open it,” he says, holding it out to her.

“Honey. It’s your letter…”

“I know, I know, but… It would just mean a lot to me if you read it first.”

“Ok. Sure.” She peers up at him curiously but takes it without further question. She waits a second, watching him for confirmation before shredding through the flap.

She squeezes her eyes shut while she pulls the letter free and unfolds it. She waits, peeks one eye open. He smiles.

“Jonathan!” She squeals, eyes wide, still scanning the paper. “Jonathan! You’re in! With a scholarship!”

“What?” He pulls the letter towards him, and sure enough there’s the number printed right there, four digits seemingly standing out amongst the other copy.

“I’m so proud of you!” She reaches to touch his cheek, and he looks down to see happy tears gleaming in her eyes. “You’re so smart, so talented. You really deserved this. You’re such a good man.”

She throws her arms around him, which he’s thankful for so she doesn’t see his own tears.

“What’s going on?” Will’s voice says at the end of the hall. Jonathan blinks up to him, El at his shoulder. 

“I got into NYU,” he rasps, keeping his voice as steady as possible.

“With a scholarship!” Joyce adds, and then the kids are cheering and bouncing over for a group hug right there in the hall.

“Ice cream!” El declares. “To celebrate.”

“Oh, I haven’t even thought about dinner yet,” Joyce says as the hug breaks up, wiping tears from her eyes. “But I guess we could break the rule. Just for today. Has anyone seen my keys?”

When the other two set off to search, she stops to give him another squeeze, and he lets himself rest there for a moment.

“You should be proud of yourself, Jonathan. Just for you,” she says, and if he’s honest, it kinda does still feel a little bit selfish, but just barely.    
  



	3. Chapter 3

The alarm clock blares, the radio station she’s tuned it to sending sickly sweet pop music cutting through the quiet morning. It’s the sound they’ve both dreaded to hear for the past 48 hours; a doomsday timer signaling his departure for the next who-knew-how-long.

The music is grating, but he ignores its bright synth keys and put-on vocals.

He just cares that she’s here. Or he’s there, rather, curled up behind her, the clean scent of her filling his senses. In her bed, in her flowery sheets, sunlight spilling through the curtains.

She wears his shirt. The smell of breakfast of some sort drifts up from downstairs. It could almost be normal. One of the many times they’d secretly stayed over at the other’s house.

Nancy’s hand reaches to silence the alarm, then settles back under her chin and she snuggles closer to him...if that’s possible.

She sighs.

“Do you have to go today?” she asks quietly.

“It’s a long drive…” He burries his nose in her hair, curls all flat and frizzy from sleep.

He tugs the fabric of his shirt, slips his hand under the sleeve to trace her arm. “I kinda need this back…”

“Hmm...I think I’ll keep it,” she says over her shoulder.

“...wouldn’t be very appropriate.”

She shifts, turning in his arms to face him, the scent of her perfume blooming between them. He hopes it stays, stuck in the collar of his shirt at least for the duration of the drive back home.

“I wouldn’t mind,” she says coyly and kisses him.

He gives in for just a minute, but they’ll lose track of time easily if he doesn’t keep a sober mind.

“They’ll start calling you any minute.”

She sighs. “Ok.”

He pulls away, stands to find his pants on the floor and she tosses him the shirt.

She’s in a blue sweater and jeans by the time the window’s open and his chucks are scraping the shingles.

“See you in ten,” she says, and steals another kiss before he shimmies his way down, slipping a little when dodging the gutter. He and his car are back in the driveway minutes later, and when she answers the door, her hair is neat, makeup in place, and she kisses his cheek like it’s a whole new day.

At least their hellos outnumber the goodbyes.   
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had already written this and decided that it was finished and cute before I realized...if Jonathan visited her for a weekend and came over for breakfast with her family, what excuse would they make to Karen and Ted about where he was staying? Oh well. I like it anyways despite the plot holes. You decide.
> 
> Also, I haven't made my mind up about where the Byers moved; if they're still in Indiana or another state. I hope they'd be close enough to visit if they wanted to, but they wouldn't go to Indianapolis either because Lonnie's there so *shrug.* You decide that too.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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